Anglican in Wilson

Many readers of this blog (such as remain after my long silence) know that my wife Christie and I have been engaged in the arduous transition from the Church of God into the Evangelical Anglican family. Helping us along the way have been such wonderful men as The Rev. Jim Murphy of the AMiA and The Rev. Canon Ralph Frye of the REC and the congregation of St Andrew’s Anglican Church of Garysburg, NC. Though at times I wondered at the many delays and unexplainable hindrances, the process has been fruitful as we have learned more and more how to submit our wills to God and our tastes to the governance of his ministers. But now, I can say with great joy, we have found our home! On Friday, September 26, I was ordained a presbyter in the Reformed Episcopal Church by the Missionary Bishop Daniel Morse, who lovingly shepherds the Missionary Diocese of the Central States.

Now don’t get me wrong. This is not the part of the aforementioned family I originally wanted to join! I thought these were the staunch, angry, old-school, no-frills, we-don’t-need-no-stinkin’-vestments guys, wielding their Jacobean prayer-books with an eye to judgement. That’s what some of my Episcopalian friends thought. That’s what the liberal-slant commentators sometimes indicate. How in the world did a young, Wesleyan, non-angry charismatic end up in the Reformed Episcopal Church?

Well, here are some of the things I found out as I explored the REC:

They are fully Anglican in belief and practice, tracing their roots (and episcopacy) as an evangelical, Anglican witness to days long before the Continuum.

Their Book of Common Prayer is cherished, but not wielded as a weapon, held lovingly, not stubbornly.

Their doctrines, styles, and structures are not reactionary to current, heated ecclesiological disputes.

They aren’t angry at The Episcopal Church.

They are warm, sincere, and passionately “missional”.

Wesley would probably like these guys!

I have never in my life and ministry been made to feel more welcome than I have among the ministers of this diocese. I have never had a bishop whom I trust more to feed the flock of God faithfully and humbly. I am so blessed to be found among them, a priest within the Anglican tradition of the Reformed Episcopal Church.

Check out the links to our humble websites. Our presence isn’t flashy or “hip”, but don’t let that fool you. We’re here with a passion for Christ and his Kingdom. Thanks be to God!

Anyone paying the slightest attention to the Anglican world knows we've had more than our share of troubles lately. We are increasingly divided, it seems, by issues of scriptural interpretation, morality, ethics, and more. And now our bishops can't even get along well enough to be bishops together in the same room. We are in crisis, to say the very least. I've not mentioned the crisis in any of my posts, because that would probably lead to polarizing comments here and there, and that's not my intent. But the parable Jesus explains above raises in my mind the image of our current Anglican debacle, and so I have one bit of advice to offer those who are watching.

Jesus pictures our world as having been "sown" with the children of the kingdom, and it is obvious that he is correct. The Church has indeed filled the earth and proven itself to have come from good seed. I know people will never let us live down the Crusades and a few other very unfortunate misteps on our part, but face it, if you've ever been to a hospital or a university or a shelter or even a YMCA, you've benefited from the Church's inventions spread throughout the earth - evidence of good seed and good harvest to the glory of God.

Jesus also pictures the world, though, as having been stealthily sown over by the enemy. Weeds have sprung up among the wheat. The sometimes sordid history of the Church bears witness to the truth of this part of the picture as well. In the parable the servants of the kingdom ask the master if they should go pluck the weeds. The master is clear: plucking out the weeds will harm the wheat. Wait until harvest when the angels will sort one from the other, one to be burned and the other to "shine in the sun".

Back to the matter of global Anglicanism. The servants of the Kingdom have their gardening gloves on ready to pluck each other to oblivion! I do not intend to diminish the importance of the issues each side is rankled about. These are fundamental issues about how we follow Jesus in the world, how we read Scripture, how we perceive morality and holiness. But I am horrified by the arrogance of some of the conservatives I know who write Episcopalians off as unregenerate. I hate the flippancy of some of the liberals I know who write other Anglicans off as narrow-minded and unenlightened. They may as well be shouting "weed" at each other. "I'm whole-grain; I have the right to see you plucked!" Nonsense.

Now, it's clear to all who know me that I hang out in the conservative end of the pool; this is a reasoned decision. But I came to Anglican practice to begin with because of the witness of pretty "liberal" Episcopalians. I LOVE the 1979 prayerbook. I'm an evangelical, charismatic anglo-catholic, for heaven's sake! But I'm pretty sure that no matter how busy I might get finding handy-dandy labels for my own positions I had better be very careful what labels I fling upon anyone else. After all, even if we can clearly prove the weediness of the weeds over against our oh-so-obvious wheatiness, plucking the weeds will only hurt the wheat! Orthodoxy without love is dead.

So I'm gonna worship the Lord, serve the Lord and the Lord's Church. What will I do about those pesky weeds? Make sure I'm not acting weedily myself. And wait for the angels.

Sometimes the psalms just don’t seem plausible to me. Am I the only one? The first part of this psalm is weird enough, but at least I can conceive of angels praising the Lord. That is, I suppose, what they do, after all. But by the time we get to sea-monsters, my credulity is strained. “Would somebody hand Nessie a tambourine?” I mean, c’mon! And this bit about fire and hail “doing his will”. That’s just a bit too much. …I know! It’s poetic, right? And this is just lyrical imagery intended to make us long for a world governed by Yahweh where all is well and all manner of things are well. That’s the only reason we can talk about kings and peoples and generations praising the Name together, right?, poetic wishful thinking. Hoping. It’s poetic hyperbole, isn’t it? Maybe one day in “heaven” this will be reality, but not today, right?

And what about that last verse? Can we really say that God has – past tense – done this for us? In seminary we’d call it “proleptic”, speaking of the future as though present. Surely if we join this Hallelujah, it’s in hope of something to come, right? Right?

Unless it’s Easter. If it’s really Easter and the End has broken into the present with the rising of Jesus from the dead, then anything is possible. The future hope can be today’s because of what He did yesterday. Then it’s real and right now. If it’s Easter, then the implausible becomes the imperative. Praise him! All of it praises him. I praise him and the trees praise him and UFO’s praise him and your dog in the back yard praises him. And Barack and Hillary and John all praise him. And Katrina praises him because everything gets redeemed. One day death will praise him. What else am I doing today that’s so important anyway? Praise him.
Hallelujah!